“The only true voyage, the only bath in the Fountain of Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to see the hundred universes that each of them sees, that each of them is; and this we do [with great artists]; with artists like these we do really fly from star to star. ”
(From “The Prisoner and The Fugitive : In search of lost time, vol. 5” by Marcel Proust)

This young man was climbing a pillar which is usually underwater in the Ganges at Scindia ghat.
This architectural element is what is left from the massive palace which used to stand there until the end of the 19th century before the whole structure fell in the holy river.
This picture belongs to a series revolving around my “search of lost time” and of the lost splendour of Varanasi (Benaras)…

“The Ganges front is the supreme showplace of Benares.
Its tall bluffs are solidly caked from water to summit, along a stretch of three miles, with a splendid jumble of massive and picturesque masonry, a bewildering and beautiful confusion of stone platforms, temples, stair flights, rich and stately palaces….soaring stairways, sculptured temples, majestic palaces, softening away into the distances; and there is movement, motion, human life everywhere, and brilliantly costumed – streaming in rainbows up and down the lofty stairways, and massed in metaphorical gardens on the mile of great platforms at the river’s edge.”
(Mark Twain – American Writer and Lecturer. 1835-1910)

This is a view of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) from Ahilyabai ghat to Mansrowar Ghat.
Some dreams can never be lost, they become footprints of the soul…
The Eternal city belongs to these kind of dreams…

“All forms of beauty, like all possible phenomena, contain an element of the eternal and an element of the transitory — of the absolute and of the particular.
Absolute and eternal beauty does not exist, or rather it is only an abstraction creamed from the general surface of different beauties.
The particular element in each manifestation comes from the emotions: and just as we have our own particular emotions, so we have our own beauty.”
(Charles Baudelaire – French Poet, 1821-1867)

I’ll never get tired of taking pictures of the Taj Mahal…
This is the absolute embodiment of everything on earth.

“Kingly power is like a cruel bolt of thunder,
Let that fade away like the blood-red sky at dusk,
Let just one eternal sigh remain like sadness in the sky
Wasn’t that all you’d ever asked for?
The glittering jewels cast their spell like an eternal magical mystery.
But even if that does vanish,
Let just one tear drop roll down the cheeks of Time;
The pure light of Taj Mahal.”
(Rabindranath Tagore – Indian Poet, Playwright and Essayist. Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, 1861–1941)

Endless passion, everlasting love, eternal sigh…the Taj Mahal should remain forever the essence of perfection…
However there is a threat over this image of Heaven as it could collapse within four years because wooden foundations are rotting.
( Read more at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045183/Taj-Mahal-collap… )
Nowadays it is almost impossible to take this picture anymore as the army doesn’t allow to go to this side of the Yamuna river.

“Should guilty seek asylum here,
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display thereby the creator’s glory.”
(Emperor Shah Jahan)

It is said that Shah Jahan wrote himself this poem about the Taj Mahal that he built for Mumtaz Mahal, his favorite wife (Original Source: Mahajan, Vidya Dhar (1970). Muslim Rule In India. p. 200).
The Taj Mahal seen from the banks of river Yamuna might be a common dream for many but truly this stunning architectural beauty is second to none and each time I come there I simply love it a little more…

This is the back of the main building of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi (Benaras) which was established in 1791 and this is a part of the jantar mantar (observatory).
Such an architecture wouldn’t be expected there and it is adding mystery to the oldest living city where the hours have definitely decided to stop.
Sometimes during summers I seat at the door of a classroom where flows a light breeze and I can listen to the French lessons at the end of the day.
This is how I met Himanshu who ever since always comes by chance to practice my mother tongue at my office which is nearby…

“Be kind to all creatures; this is the true religion.” (Siddhārtha Gautama, known as the Buddha – c. 563 BCE/480 BCE – c. 483 BCE/400 BCE) This is a close-up of one of the statues of the Buddha inside the Tibetan temple in Sarnath which is located at 13 km away from Varanasi (Benaras). More […]

Originally posted on Red Halo: Since the first collection, Red Halo introduced a specific design reminding the Mughal’s royal court magnificence. It was designed by Manish Gupta and inspired by a Persian carpet style, in a way it was making a bridge between the carpet industry that he knew so well and this interior company…

Originally posted on Red Halo: Our show-room in Benares was thought with neutral colours and simple contemporary elements which allow to emphasize our products. We keep this concept for the booths we settle all over the world when we show our collections during exhibitions and fairs or for the Red Halo shops and corners in…

“The longing for Paradise is man’s longing not to be man.” (From “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera) This picture was shot at Manikarnika Ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) where Hindus are cremated hoping to receive moksha, freedom from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth. Moksha allows one to […]

“I tell you once and for all— in front of the angel pictures on the wall, that I am not a host to load-bearing ghosts or headyentities, and if I was ever holy, I have fallen far into the dense atmosphere of the living.” (From ” Drum Machine” by Kristen Henderson) This is a street […]

“It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.” (David Bailey – English fashion and portrait photographer, b.1938) This picture […]

“To the Divine” is a picture shot during the Ganga Aarti celebrated for Dev Diwali at Prayag ghat along the holy waters of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras). It was selected for the image cover of the October 2014 issue of “SHUBH YATRA”, the inflight magazine of Air India. Join the photographer at LAURENT […]

“Monsoon’s showers” is a picture shot in New Delhi during the first day of monsoon. Some devotee were waiting in line in the street in order to worship in a temple, they were enjoying the rain after the heat of summer. It was selected for “De l’eau et des hommes” a book by Jean-Claude Lefeuvre […]

“Out of Sundays Dancing” is a picture with four parrots dancing in the air at Munshi ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras). It was selected to make the cover of “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth which is released for the 20Th Anniversary Edition. _______________________ “A Suitable Boy”: 20Th Anniversary Edition by Vikram Seth […]